The coding bootcamp boom of 2021-22, fueled by high demand for software engineers, has cooled as generative AI reshapes the industry. Many startups have closed or pivoted, while others focus on AI-driven skills. Despite India's large pool of engineers, only a fraction are job-ready, highlighting the challenge of adapting to evolving tech demands.
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When the demand for software engineers shot up mid Covid-19 in 2021-22, close to a dozen startups offering coding bootcamps tried to bridge the skill gap.
As generative AI disrupts every business and coding too is getting automated, several of these online coding startups have either folded up or are pivoting, while newer ones like 100X engineers are helping people to use the latest AI tools to equip themselves to the changing technology paradigm.
Over the past two years, well-funded startups like Scaler Academy and Newton School moved to offline classrooms to teach undergraduate programmes. While startups like AltCampus were shut down early this year, others such as FunctionUp, Coding Ninja and Greyatom were acquired by larger companies.
India is home to the second largest pool of software developers in the world, with 5.8 million professionals. It also produces around 1.5 million fresh engineers every year. However, just 10% of them have the ability to secure jobs, according to a Teamlease report.
Skilling these engineers was a key challenge the coding startups were looking to address.
Founder of one of the online startups that folded said on the condition of anonymity that changes in the last couple of years forced them to shut down the company. "The number of entry level jobs available for freshers have come down," he said. "Also, compared to a couple of years ago, people have better access to free resources for learning."
With AI coming in, there is a demand for people with experience and those catering to freshers are not seeing much demand, the founder explained.
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Mohammad Faraz, partner at Upsparks Capital, which had invested in FunctionUp, said the early excitement around edtech was driven by the pandemic but sustaining that became challenging.
As a result, raising funding became a challenge, forcing these startups to fold up, sell off, or change tracks. CodingNinja was acquired by InfoEdge in 2022 and Greyatom was acquired by BrowserStack, going by Tracxn data.
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